[A survey on the attitudes and confidence of general practitioners in handling dementia and its related problems].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate general practitioners (GPs)' attitudes and confidence in handling dementia and its related problems. METHOD: A questionnaire survey was conducted in GPs from Shanghai on 25th Sep, 2012. The questionnaire included the basic information of the GPs and their attitudes toward and confidence in handling dementia and its related problems. RESULTS: A total of 287 GPs from 73 hospitals participated in the survey.78.4% of them responded that they met fewer demented patients during their clinical practice and only 24.7% of them had attended some kinds of dementia-related knowledge training courses.Senior GPs were less enthusiastic than junior GPs in handling dementia and its related problems as they were more likely to think that dementia should be diagnosed by specialist (87.1% vs. 74.8%, OR = 2.28, 95%CI1.14~4.57, P = 0.02), less likely to actively referral patients (22.0% vs. 10.1%, OR = 2.52, 95%CI1.24~5.14, P = 0.01), and more likely to think about that GPs have very limited role in care of demented patients (9.7% vs. 0.7%, OR = 15.59, 95%CI1.96~123.81, P = 0.00). CONCLUSION: The GPs in Shanghai are lack of trainings about the dementia and its' related knowledge and their attitudes toward the care of dementia are pessimistic. Thus, it is necessary to train the GPs more to enhance their confidence and enthusiasm in care of dementia.